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TRAVEL AND MOUNTATNEERING IN SUANETTA 243
It is a pleasant ride of about two hours, or a uuicli pleasauter
walk— for in Suanetia the bridle-lanes are stony ditches, while
the field footpaths resemble those of our own country —down the
open valley to Latal. For most of the way the traveller passes
between barley-fields divided by neat wattled fences. 'J'he fore-
grounds are shifting combinations of golden grain, white towers,
and graceful bu-ches. On the slopes of the middle distance the
sombre tints of the evergreen forests lie like shadows across the
SUANETIAN HOMESTEADS
brighter hues of the beech, jioplar, and alder groves. In either
du-ection the view is closed by noble snow-peaks, the Laila in
front, Tetnuld behind.
At Lenjer, a group of hamlets about half-way to Latal, there
is a church with a hexagonal apse. The masonry is very superior
to that of the houses or towers, the blocks being of limestone and
The external walls are frescoed after the manner
carefully s(|uared.
of an Italian chapel. There are some graves near the church, and
others near an old fir-tree, which has stone seats under it, as at
Mestia. The rarity of graves in Suanetia is striking. This strange